12/03/15 12/03/15 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from the un climate summit in paris, france, this is democracy now! >> for all members making a decision of what british servicemen and women would be in harms way and almost never to believe the death of innocence is a heavy responsibility. >> it is now time for us to do our bit in syria, and that is why i asked my colleagues to vote for this motion tonight.

amy: the british parliament votes to attack syria and begins bombing its oil fields immediately. meanwhile in the united states, another mass shooting in san bernardino, california, the worst since sandy hook. 14 people killed and 17 people wounded, the two suspects are shot dead by police. >> i know one of the big questions that will come up repeatedly, is this terrorism? i am still not willing to say that we know that for sure. >> i am in shock that something like this could happen. amy: it's the 355th mass shooting in the u.s. this year, averaging more than one per day. we'll speak with california senate president kevin deleon about gun control and the nra. we will also ask deleon about the possible backlash against the muslim community. and here in france, as the authorities announce there have been more than 2200 raids since

the november 13 paris attacks, we'll speak with muslim civil rights leader yasser louati about islamophobia and a community under siege. >> we have several disturbing cases. example, seven mosques, at least three got crushed by the police when they were searching them. we all know that mosques are under high surveillance, so why raid of place that you know has nothing to give you. and second, why add humor issued injury by trashing the place? amy: we'll also speak with asad rehman, former national organizer of the stop the war coalition in the uk, about war, oil, climate and political instability. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman.

in san bernardino, california, a -- two killed 14 people, wounding at least 17. two suspects, identified as syed farook and tashfeen malik, were later killed by police. the shooting took place about 60 miles east of los angeles at the inland regional center, a facility that provides services to people with disabilities. it was the worst mass shooting in the united states since the massacre at sandy hook elementary in in newtown, connecticut, when a gunman killed 20 children, six adults, his mother and himself. , san bernardino police chief jarrod burguan said one of the suspects in wednesday's shooting, syed farook, was a county health department employee who had attended a department holiday party at the center earlier in the day. the chief said farook left the party after some kind of

dispute, then returned and opened fire. after the san bernardino shooting, president obama spoke with cbs news' norah o'donnell. >> the one thing we do know is that we have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world, and there are some steps we could take, not to eliminate every one of these mass shootings, but to improve the odds that they don't happen as frequently. we should come together in a bipartisan basis at every level these rarent to make as opposed to normal. amy: in 2015, there has been an average of more than one mass shooting a day with a total of 452 people killed this year alone. we will have more on the shootings later in the broadcast. british warplanes have begun bombing syria only hours after

british lawmakers voted 397 to 223 to support prime minister david cameron's plan to join the u.s.-led bombing campaign. defense secretary michael fallon says the strikes hit oil fields in eastern syria controlled by the self-proclaimed islamic state. the strikes began after a 10-hour debate in parliament on wednesday, which divided the opposition labour party, led by jeremy corbyn. we'll have more on the vote and the airstrikes later in the broadcast. meanwhile, the pentagon says the new team of u.s. special operation forces to be deployed to iraq will likely include about 100 soldiers. army colonel steve warren announced the troop figure on wednesday. >> we don't want to go into exact numbers, i can tell you it will be probably around 100, maybe a little a's. in fact, really fewer actual trigger points come if you will, real commandos.

it will be a majority of support personnel. amy: new afghan government documents show that an elite cia-trained afghan force has killed at least six civilians during recent home raids in khost province. in one raid on november 20, two u.s. advisers were present when two civilians, a woman and her husband, were killed. during another raid on november 7, the afghan forces killed two innocent civilians -- a 45-year-old man and his teenage nephew. when about 1000 people attempted to march to the regional capital in protest of the november 7 killings they were allegedly , told by the cia-trained afghan forces that they could be attacked by u.s. troops if they did not disperse. the cia-trained afghan forces have long been accused of carrying out human rights abuses and being unaccountable to the afghan government. meanwhile, a government watchdog has accused the pentagon of wasting nearly $150 million of taxpayer money on luxury private

housing for u.s. government staff in afghanistan. the report by the special inspector general for afghanistan reconstruction details how the military spent millions of dollars putting up staff members in villas with private security in kabul, rather than housing staff on military or diplomatic bases. it also details lavish three-course meals for government events. this comes only a month after the same watchdog agency raised questions about the $43 million the pentagon spent on a single gas station in afghanistan. the united states has appropriated nearly $110 billion of public money for reconstruction in afghanistan since 2002. in india, catastrophic flooding in the southern state of chennai has killed at least 269 people and cut off basic services for more than three million people as the army and air force continue rescue operations.

the flooding is being described as the worst in more than a century. on wednesday, one of india's oldest newspapers, the hindu, was not printed for the first time in 137 years because the flooding had made the printing presses inaccessible. meteorologists have predicted the torrential downpours will continue for another three days. the flooding has also killed at least 54 people in the nearby state of andhra pradesh. the historic flooding in india comes as new figures show that worldwide, an average of one person is displaced by climate-related weather events every single second. the data revealed by the united nations refugee agency shows that since 2008, 22.5 million people have been displaced every year by floods, storms and other , climate-related weather events -- the equivalent of a person per second over the last eight years. speaking at the united nations climate summit wednesday, marine

franck of the un refugee agency said the cop must address climate displacement. >> the paris agreement must in the current draft of the negotiations, the issue is addressed under loss and damage, but it is also important to address this issue under adaptation. preventing and minimizing displacement must be a priority. enabling people to migrate indignity to seek alternative opportunities when leaving conditions deteriorate -- living conditions deteriorate and crisis comes knocking at their door is also a an important measure. amy: the u.s. justice department has dropped the manslaughter charges against two bp rig supervisors over the 2010 deepwater horizon rig explosion in the gulf of mexico, which

killed 11 workers and caused the worst offshore oil spill in u.s. history. in total, four former bp employees faced criminal charges after the disaster. two of the cases have already been resolved without the employees serving prison time. on wednesday, prosecutors dropped the involuntary manslaughter charges against the other two employees, donald vidrine and robert kaluza. in zurich, swiss authorities have arrested a handful of top fifa officials in a series of pre-dawn raids on luxury hotels in zurich. the top officials were arrested on charges of taking millions of dollars in bribes. at least two are being extradited to the united states. their arrests are part of a massive corruption scandal that has led to the arrest of about two dozen top officials and the suspension of fifa president sepp blatter. south africa's top appeals court has ruled that olympic and paralympic runner oscar

pistorius is guilty of murdering his girlfriend reeva steenkamp in 2013. thursday's ruling overturns a lower court's decision to convict pistorius on the lesser charge of manslaughter. pistorius is currently under house arrest and is awaiting sentencing for the new murder conviction, which carries a minimum of 15 years jail time. in brazil, the congress has opened impeachment proceedings against president dilma rousseff amid a growing corruption scandal that has rocked the government. the impeachment proceedings, which are the first in brazil since 1992, were brought by house speaker eduardo cunha, who faces his own corruption charges, related to a million-dollar bribery scheme involving the state-run oil company petrobras. in chicago, mayor rahm emanuel is facing increasing questioning over whether he will resign amid the scandal over the police killing of 17-year-old laquan mcdonald more than a year ago.

mcdonald was shot by 16 times by white police officer jason van dyke. chicago authorities withheld the police dashcam video of the fatal and only released it last week under a court order. officer van dyke was indicted on first-degree murder charges the same day. the video clearly contradicts police claims about the shooting, instead showing -- showing the teenager walking away from the officers at a distance as officer van dyke jumps out of his police car and opens fire. on tuesday, emanuel fired chicago police chief garry mccarthy. but allegations about a potential cover-up have continued to plague the mayor as he faces questioning about a preemptive finally dollars settlement laquan mcdonald's family during the mayor's election campaign. on wednesday, the mayor maintained he will not resign. meanwhile, in minneapolis, police have raided and bulldozed the protest site outside the 4th police precinct, where people

have been camped out for weeks demanding the release of video footage of the killing of unarmed african-american jamar clark. police said clark was shot after a scuffle with officers who responded to a report of an assault. but multiple witnesses have said clark was shot while handcuffed. at around 3:45 a.m. thursday morning, police in riot gear raided the camp. video footage shows the police destroying tents and food with a bulldozer. about a half dozen people are reported to have been arrested. the destruction of the camp comes a little over a week after five black lives matter protesters were shot and wounded at the encampment by alleged white supremacists. and harvard university has announced it will stop using the title "house master" to describe the heads of its residential dorms, following protests by students. they say the term is tied to slavery. harvard is one of many schools

nationwide where protests have erupted over racism on campus . princeton has also dropped the title for its residential dorm heads. at princeton, students are also demanding the renaming of buildings currently named after woodrow wilson. as president, wilson ordered the resegregation of restrooms and cafeterias in washington government buildings and that screens be set up to separate black and white workers in federal offices. he was also the president of princeton university. at yale university, where administrators are also considering plans to abandon the title "master," students are also demanding the institution rename the residential dorm calhoun college, named after former u.s. vice president john calhoun, one of the most prominent pro-slavery figures in history. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report.

i'm amy goodman. british warplanes have begun bombing targets in syria just a hours after british lawmakers voted 397 to 223 to support prime minister david cameron's plan for air strikes. the warplanes took off from an airbase in cyprus. they struck oil fields in eastern syria controlled by the self-proclaimed islamic state. the decision to bomb syria divided the opposition labour party in britain. labour leader jeremy corbyn opposed the bombing, but was challenged by foreign affairs spokesman hilary benn. lawmakers held a 10 hour debate on wednesday. we will hear from corbyn and benn, but first, prime minister david cameron. >> in moving this motion, i'm not pretending the answers are simple. the situation in syria is incredibly complex. i'm not overstating the contribution that our incredible service men and women can make, neither am i ignoring the risks

of military action nor am i pretending that military action is any more than one part of the answer. i am absolutely clear that we must pursue a comprehensive strategy that also includes political, diplomatic, and humanitarian action. i know that the long-term solution in syria as in iraq must ultimately be a government that represents all of its people, and one that can work with us to defeat the evil organization of isil for good. >> i call mr. jeremy corbyn. >> thank you, mr. speaker. recognizes the decisions to send british forces to war are the most serious, solemn, and morally challenging of any that we have to take as members of parliament. the motion brought before the house today by the government authorizing military action in syria against isil faced us with exactly that decision.

it is one with potentially far-reaching consequences for us all here in britain as well as the people of syria and the wider middle east. for all members, taking a decision of what british -- putting british servicemen and women in harm's way honest inevitably lead to the deaths of innocents is a heavy responsibility. it must bereated with the utmost seriousness and respect given to those who make a different judgment about the right course of action to take. which is why the prime minister's attempt to brown nose a vote against the government as terrorist sympathizers, both demeans the office of the prime minister and, i believe, undermines the seriousness of the liberations we're having today. if the prime and us are now wants to apologize for those remarks, i would be happy to give way to him to do so.

since, mr. speaker, the prime minister is unmoved, we will have to move on with the debate and i hope he will be stronger yes, he recognize that, did make an unfortunate remark last night and apologizing for it would be very help full to improve the atmosphere of this debate today. >> mr. hilary benn. fascists here faced by , not just their calculated brutality, but their belief that they are superior to every single one of us in this chamber tonight, and all of the people that we represent. they hold us in contempt. they hold our values in contempt. they hold our belief in tolerance and decency in contempt.

they hold our democracy, the means by which we will make our decision tonight, in contempt. what we know about fascists, is that they need to be defeated. and it is why as we have heard and tradeocialists unionists and others join the international brigade in the 1930's to fight against franco. it is why this entire house stood up against hitler and most illini. it is why our party has always stood up against the denial of human rights and for justice and my view, mr. speaker, is we must now confront this evil. it is now time for us to do our bit in syria. and that is why i asked my colleagues to vote for this motion tonight. is british labor

deskamentary parliamentarian hilary benn, son of tony benn, preceded by labour leader jeremy corbyn and prime minister david cameron. joining us here in paris is asad rehman, former national organizer of the stop the war coalition in the uk. he now serves as head of international climate for friends of the earth. in a moment, we are going to talk with him about what is going on here at the cop. first, you're not speaking for friends of the earth, asad, but in his former capacity of stop the war coalition, coordinator, britonsto your country, decision, to bomb syria. >> i think it is a very sad day the interestsput of the syrian people at the heart of any decision-making, they cannot be rejoicing a decision by the british parliament to put more bombs and

kill more people in syria. we know the syrian people have war.ed a tragic, violent millions of people have been forced to be refugees. and hundreds of thousands of people continue to be killed each year. and they're being killed by the bombs of all sides. for those who stand in solidarity with the syrian people, cannot say the decision to send more bombs by the u.k. airplanes will do anything to help them. amy: how do you respond to hilary benn, the son of tony benn, who, you know, is not david cameron, he is in the labour party, and the labour party was fiercely divided? >> absolutely. of course, there has been -- vigorous debate both within the left party and in british public opinion. but the reality is, we have seen that even the bombs that have fallen from the western allies, independent sources now tell us

459 civilians have been killed, over 100 children have died as a result of our western bombing. we know that nobody can guarantee that the bombs are being dropped on -- in syria will not kill more innocent people. the deaths of individuals are tragic, and we cannot see and exceptionalism that says, the lives of people in the west are valued more than the lives of people in syria. as for ends of the earth, many of our groups have lived through conflict situations in sri lanka, colombia, el salvador, in the balkans. we understand what the reality of war means for civilian population. i think we should listen to the people of syria. many of the people who have been fleeing from raqqa has said, please, don't bomb raqqa, we are civilians in syria. nobody has invented a bomb yet that magically position that can take out the so-called terrorists, but will keep innocent siblings alive. we know there will be a tragic loss of life and that is a blemish on british --

amy: talk about what the alternative is right now in dealing with isis. >> we all recognize we need a political -- we have seen 10 years of bombing of war in iraq has left the country in ruins. the intervention in libya has left the country in ruins. we have seen the civil war in syria has left the country in ruins. the reality is, the military option will not deliver a lasting peaceful solution. what we really need to do is tackle the arms being sent to anda, who is funding daesh other armed groups. we need to start talking about ensuring that the geopolitical fight, the big political fight between allies of the united states and britain such as saudi arabia, which has left billions and billions and spreading his particular ideology and puritanical version of islam and partly responsible for creating this version of jihadiism is also tackled.

need less war, less military intervention and more support for the syrian people, more support for the syrian refugees. i have to say, it is absolutely atrocious that the prime minister could talk in parliament about the u.k. needed to stand shoulder to shoulder and let -- take on our fair share burden when we're doing nothing to help the syrian refugees who are fleeing this war and persecution coming to europe. we have only taken 100 and we should be taking and doing our fair share of responsibility and taking in the people fleeing from this war. amy: the strikes targeted oil fields in eastern syria under isis control, they say, the british defense secretary michael fallon had personally approved the targets before the parliamentary vote. why was this action so swift? >> i mean, it is incredible, especially sitting in this building here when we talk about climate change and talk about the need for urgency and ambition and we are constantly told we have to be pragmatic,

constantly told not today, tomorrow. constantly told, it is not possible to move so fast. yet when it comes to war, we are able to move very rapidly and find the finances to be able to fund the bombs that drop. i would much rather those money would go to help the actual people of syria, that we were supporting people in all conflict areas with the right to live a decent life. i think that would go someone to show actually we're living in a world where we value everybody's lives. amy: we're going to go to break and come back to this discussion, speaking with asad rehman, head of international climate for friends of the earth. he was previously the national organizer of the stop the war coalition in the uk. we are broadcasting live from the cop21, the u.n. climate summit here just outside of paris. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from paris, france, from the u.n. climate summit, cop21, conference of parties. we are joined by our guest asad rehman, head of international climate for friends of the earth. as we talk now about climate and war, i want to talk about the connection between climate change and political instability. this is u.s. secretary of state john kerry speaking last month. >> for example, in nigeria, climate change did not lead to the rise of the terrorist group boko haram, but the severe drought that that country suffered in the government's inability to cope with it helped andte the political economic volatility that the militants exploited disease villages, which are teachers, and kidnapped hundreds of innocent schoolgirls. it is not a coincidence that immediately prior to the civil

war in syria, the country experienced its worst drought on record. as many as 1.5 million people migrated from syria's farms to its cities, intensifying the political unrest that was just beginning to boil in the region. amy: that is john kerry speaking last month. asad rehman, your response? >> it is difficult for anybody now not to make the candidate -- next between, change, war, conflict. climate change exasperates everything. , asave seen it in syria john kerry mentioned, but also nigeria and other places. the reality is, climate change is both creating the conditions for social upheaval in many places, more distresses, agricultural yields collapse, as people move from rural to urban

tensions become exasperated. if we want to deal with the issues of military and conflict, we should go to the root cause. the root cause is inequality as well as climate change. amy: i want to get a inequality, but the issue of conflict in syria? >> from 2006 to 2011, 5 years of the worst drought ever in syrian history. between 1.5 to 29 people moved from rural to urban areas. 80% of livestock died. of course, in the situations, just as we know in the air spring -- arab spring with a harvest collapse, food prices tripled, those created the theal tensions which led to arab spring. a similar situation existed in syria and that is the main connection between thetwo. amy: inequality. >> we live in a broken economic system. we have 85 families who own 50%

of global wealth, 80% of the world population, the majority of the world population only own 5% of the world's wealth. many of our citizens, our fellow citizens, 2.5 billion who don't have access to toilet, just under one billion who don't have access to electricity. the reality is, we have enough money, what we don't have is a political will to spin it in the right direction, the right places. inequality, which already leads to people both in terms of migration, leave people vulnerable, when climate change is added, it exasperates the situation and move them from being on subsistence to the kind of catastrophic situations we are saying. 15 million people facing one of the worst droughts in human history, for example. amy: asad rehman, as we wrap up, can you talk about what is happening, where we are right

now, where we are at the cop 21, the u.n. climate summit, the 21st climate summit, what is at issue? you have all of these countries who brought voluntary standards to the table. what is being enforced? what is being hammered out over this too weak period? >> you would think while the heads of state brought warm words and halfhearted measures, in reality, we have a problem with the global commons and the needs of global solution in the news to be done on a fair basis and needs to be done fairly and distributed fairly, and then there needs to be a legal component so we all know each other is doing our fair share. the reality is, what we have is deregulated climate regime. at the behest of the united states. we want to put forward a proposal that people should come here and say whatever they want to do, do whatever they want to do in their own circumstances. the reality is, that is between three degree to for degree

warming of the planet and a burning of the planet. what is really going on in the corridors is not that politicians and negotiators don't know the impact of climate change, they recognize that, what they don't to do is take responsibility for dealing with the impacts of climate change for being responsible for the finance, for helping the poorest and the most vulnerable, or being supporting them in terms of shifting away from dirty energy development to much cleaner and more saver development pathway. amy: where inequality fits into this, what you expect to come out of this, who is responsible for dealing with clement change? >> the climate convention, the legal treaty says those were most responsible are the richest countries who have gone wealthy, their addiction to dirty energy from polluting the atmosphere of polluting our waters, they should take a lead. they have the capacity and resources to shift away from this and support the poorest and most vulnerable countries to be able to deal with the climate

change impacts. unfortunately, the real fights going on, they don't want to put finance on the table. what they would rather have is poorer countries taking out loans, getting into more debt to do with the impacts of something that they are not responsible for. amy: the paris accord, what do you want it to look like? december 11, this convention will be done. >> what we would like as a fair and a vicious, legally binding agreement which talks about taking now -- taking action now enough tomorrow. and shifts technology and says very clearly we are moving away from dirty energy. that means what needs to happen is rich, developed countries need to do much more than what they're doing now before 2020 and not say that will promise to do very little in the coming decade. , thank you forn being here. we will be at the cop for the u.n. climate summit. asad rehman is head of international climate for

friends of the earth. he was previously the national organizer of the stop the war coalition in the uk. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report as we switch gears from the war abroad to the war at home in the notice states, to violence, to the latest mass shooting in the united states. on wednesday morning, man and woman armed with assault rifles and semiautomatic handguns opened fire at a social services center in san bernardino, california, killing 14 people and wounding at least 17. the suspects, identified by police as a married couple syed farook and tashfeen malik, were later killed by police. the shooting took place about 60 miles east of los angeles at the inland regional center, a facility that provides services to people with disabilities. it was the worst mass shooting in the u.s. since the massacre at an elementary school in newtown, connecticut, nearly

three years ago, when a gunman killed 26 people, most of them first graders. san bernardino police chief jarrod burguan said one of the suspects in wednesday's shooting, syed farook, was a county health department employee who had attended a department holiday party at the center earlier in the day. the chief said farook left the party after some kind of dispute, then returned and opened fire. is a countyk employee. he works with the title as an environmental specialist in the public health department and has been employed there for five years. he was at the party. he did leave the party early under some circumstances that were described as angry or something of that nature. that is the information that we were following up on when we encountered him back near this residence which led to the officer involved shooting. as we have confirmed, he is one of the deceased. amy: authorities say the suspects wore masks and body armor and left behind explosive devices at the scene.

they fled in a black suv, sparking panic in the area for hours. offices, schools and businesses , were closed or locked down as police searched for the shooters. both suspects were later killed by police who defended on their suv. coworkers told the "los angeles times" farook appeared to be "living the american dream." they said he had recently returned from saudi arabia with a new wife he met online. the couple had a six-month-old daughter. fbi assistant director david boudich said it's still unclear whether the attack was terrorism. >> i know one of the big questions that will come up repeatedly is, is this terrorism? and i'm still not willing to say that we know that for sure. we're definitely making some movements that it is a possibility. we are making some adjustments to our investigation. it is a possibility. but we don't know that yet.

and we're not willing to go down that road yet. amy: the shooting came just five days after a gunman opened fire at a planned parenthood clinic in colorado springs killing , three people and wounding nine. according to a tally maintained by shootingtracker.com, there have been 355 mass shootings in the united states this year alone, an average of one or more a day. wednesday's massacre was the second mass shooting on that day alone. person was killed and three one wounded earlier in the day in savannah, georgia. responding to the san bernardino shooting in an interview on cbs news, president obama repeated his call for gun control. >> the one thing we do know is oft we have a pattern now mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world, and there are some steps we could take -- not to eliminate every one of these mass shootings, but to improve

the odds that they don't happen as frequently. we should come together in a bipartisan basis at every level to make these rare as opposed to normal. parisarlier today here in democracy now! caught up with , the california state senate president kevin de león, who has been an advocate for stricter gun control. at a café near the notre dame cathedral, democracy now! asked kevin deleon to respond to the mass shooting in san bernardino. >> on behalf of the california state senate, our deepest condolences and send these to the victims of this senseless tragedy, especially to the working class people of the city of san bernardino. san bernardino is about an hour used of los angeles -- east of los angeles, middle-class, folks thatss city,

knocked down but always get back up. dust themselves off and work and fight to live for another day. this city has gone through a lot , specially with this latest tragedy. our deepest and most heartfelt condolences, especially to the victims, family members of this senseless tragedy. >> what do you think should happen now? >> i support the president, barack obama, with his commonsense proposals to deal with the gun laws or the lack thereof, especially when it comes to ammunition. the reality is such that when a tragedy that took place yesterday in san bernardino are coming much too common in the united states of america. we have normalized this type of sociopathic behaviors in the united states. the the massacre of beautiful children and sandy hook. we thought that was the final tipping point, that the members

of congress, especially the republicans, would move forward with common sense gun safety measures to protect the communities throughout the country. the reality is such that republicans and democrats are victims alike when it comes to these tragedies, and we need to move forward quickly with a sense of urgency, and that is why i support our president barack obama to urge congress to sabotaging the president's efforts to move forward at the national level. of theesident pro tem california state senate. california has the most restrictive gun laws in the nation, but nonetheless, we have guns that up and exported through the states of nevada, texas, as well as arizona and other parts of the country. so california is not an island unto itself. the reality is such that we need sensible gun laws as well as ammunition laws that is federal in nature, and that -- and that

is why i call on congress, but specifically the republicans in congress as well as u.s. senate, to put people, to put communities, to put our children and families above these political rhetoric's, above the ideology. you concerned this will fuel hatred towards immigrants? >> what is tragic when we have a massacre as such in san bernardino, people quickly look for scapegoats. of your skin is different, if you speak a differently which, depending on her legal status, muslim folks are targeted and racist attacks ensue. that has no place during a in san like yesterday bernardino. we have to have kolmar heads. we need to look for as a nation -- forward as a nation with

restrictive, common sense gun laws at the federal level and washington, d.c. that is why underscore and if his eyes and highlight as well as italicize the time is now. if not now, when? if not congress, then who? we need to move forward now and not tomorrow. >> where does this resistance to gun control come from? >> well, i think the most powerful political lobby in washington, d.c., and the nation's capital, is the nra, the national rifle association. the vendors, manufacturers who worked very closely with the nra -- the reality is, the nra has a strangle hold on republicans in the congress as well as u.s. senate. at the time is now that members of congress, specifically that the republicans, stop praying at the altar of the nra and start defending our communities drought the country. our responsibility as public

officials to do everything within our power to protect our constituents, to protect our communities, our families, protect our children. it is up to the republicans to work in a collaborative fashion to work with our president barack obama to move forward policies that will protect our communities now in not tomorrow. amy: california state senator kevin deleon's president pro tem of the california state senate speaking earlier today about , wednesday's shooting san bernardino, california. he is here in paris for the u.n. climate summit, talking about divesting from the fossil fuel industry. back in a minute. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in san bernardino, california, two shooters open fighter social services center killing 14 and wounding at least 17. at a news conference organized by the council of american-islamic relations wednesday, the executive director of care los angeles spoke condemning the shooting. in an interview on cnn, ayloush responded to a question about why he was so quick to issue the condemnation. cook's because we're living in a very difficult time. there's a lot of anti-muslim sentiment fueled by pundits here and there trying to blame a whole community for the acts of a few. again, we are have just been morning of a nation -- as a mission after what happened in colorado springs, not the muslim

community, american community. same thing we felt a need for our fellow americans to know that all american muslims share with the rest of the country, our shop in our agony for what happened. this was important for the family. they wanted to make sure that people know how they felt, how devastated they are and insisted being here, although, they're going -- they drove all the way to be at the office and speak to fellow americans and say, today we are all victims. we stand united in our sorrow and the only way we can come through this is through our solidarity. ayloush ofs hussam cair los angeles. here in paris, authorities had carried out more than 2200 raids since a state of emergency was declared following the november 13 attacks that killed 130 people. on sunday, i spoke to yasser louati, spokesperson and head of

the international relations desk for the collective against islamophobia in france. >> we have several highly disturbing cases, for example, they raided like seven mosques, at least three got trashed by the police as a were searching them. we all know mosques are under high surveillance, so why raid a place you already know has nothing to give you? second, why add humiliation to it injury by thrashing the place? we also have cases of brutal rates been conducted, for example, of child was hit by shrapnel after the police shot through the door. we had a restaurant being rated while people were having dinner. and open humiliation of others in front of their children and husbands. amy: can you explain under what legal grounds of these rates taking place you go the president of france declared a

state of emergency that is continuing for months. what does that allow them to do? >> the background of this law is 1955, the algerian war, declared emergency. it was against dangerous activities. now they raided people and put them under house arrest under the suspicion of -- suspicious behavior. so now they're trying to criminalize the intention of people. that is why most of the rates did not show anything tangible because the local governor can decide which restaurant, which home can be rated. they don't even have to explain themselves. and now we see a blatant case of authoritarian regime being implemented upon us. amy: i also understand a number of climate activists, not muslims, not french arab, have been put under house arrest or have been arrested altogether. of this retaliation from

the government is spiraling out of control. they said we're going to target the muslim minority. it is a tiny fraction of radicals amongst you. but not once the muslim minority bears the brunt of the retaliation, we have the cop 21 coming, and now they have raided, for example, a farm with organic food, a place where -- and now people are being scared of how far can the government take these measures. amy: we have a video of a six-year-old child. explain what happened. >> they raided the place in nice. they showed up at 2:00 in the morning, shot twice through the door to make their way in and again through a door and the shrapnel hit the girl in the back of her neck. amy: a six-year-old girl. >> a six-year-old child, yes. then the police said, "sorry, wrong house" and walked away.

amy: this is the father of the six-year-old girl describing what happened. i was woken up by noisy pounding and shooting at the door. they were trying to break the door down. i did not know if they were the police or not. they did not give any warning. when they saw me, they forced me to the ground to neutralize me. neck,ghter was hit in the probably by some shotgun pellets. fortunately, it could have been more serious. the wood of the bed stopped them somehow, but i was scared to death to see blood on my daughter. imagine at 4:30 in the morning, i wish nobody to have such an experience.

amy: that is a videotape of a home that was rated were a six-year-old girl was injured. yasser louati, did the government apologize for what they did? >> actually, we had to have videos before the government started speaking about this violence and brutality. and so far, the raid, the swat teams in the u.s., they said, we take full responsibility for this excess. but we had to have videos because we have dozens of cases raided at night and the police were saying, "sorry, wrong house" and walking away. another minister of interior only spoke about the brutality after a video showed this restaurant being rated as people were having dinner and handing the keys to the police and smashed the door to make their way in. amy: let's show a copy of the videotape. talks i was serving my clients and out of the blue, around 40 fully equipped right police

entered my restaurant. they had shotguns, bullet-proof vest, etc. they secured the perimeter. amy: that is the videotape of a restaurant being raided. you are a leader in the community. is the government reaching out to you? >> so far, no. they said, bring all of the cases of excess and we will see what we can do. now the minister of interior said that we asked the police officers and the swat teams to respect human dignity or something like that. when you give them a blank check and when local governors can decide who can be raided and with such violent -- when such violence is being reported to you in nothing is being said or done, we have to wait for the video to be shown to the government to start taking that into consideration. amy: what about the effect of the mosques being rated on the muslim community?

>> and outrage and humiliation and complete abandonment by the government. the question was, why? you know what is going on in mosques. the minister of interior knows radicalization does not happen inside mosques. they just came here. they found nothing as started pulling off ceilings, smashed the libraries, through books on the floor, and just walked away. if it is in a sense of vengeance, you know, you are playing against muslims, then what is it? why not respect human dignity? these muslims are the very same people as you people who are not muslims. why hit them again by government forces that show no respect whatsoever? when the pictures went viral on social media, the government said nothing about that. amy: you talked about feeling doubly, triply targeted, but talk about isis. i mean, overall, isis has killed more muslims than certainly any other or people of any other

religion. blindness where the lies. or isil,lled daesh whatever they call themselves, say they're doing this for the muslims, with the french muslims were expressing in france as the minority. i keep saying, if they really care about muslims, why did they keep killing them by the thousands? and this is been going on for years. and now they came to france and even killed muslims here at home in paris, so this is something that keeps repeating over and they want to take responsibility for their actions, i would have loved for these -- to take responsibility for george w. bush did with iraq, which ended up giving us these groups. amy: yasser louati, what do you think needs to happen now? >> to fight terrorism or -- amy: both. >> we need to review our foreign

policy, which is a disaster. about 10 years ago, france was perceived as a country for human rights and the friend of the oppressed, etc. sarkozy became president, it has become the enemy of summit of people around the world with support from several dictatorships. remember the example of tunisia, as an example, the former dictator of benali was losing his grip on the country, sarkozy was issuing support come even the minister of interior proposing to help them in order to crack down on all of these protesters. so now france is perceived as this colonial country that is still participating in the destabilization of many countries put up look at tunisia. we keep paying the price for our unreliable foreign policy. now we don't want to address our soquel -- socioeconomic policies

in france, we don't want to address the problem of mass unemployment, in equal access to education and housing, and the government is still saying by bombing foreign countries, it will reach the result. rhetoric but it does not change the communication, but our strategies have remained frozen in time. using, madnessp is when you keep repeating the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. -- since theve government thinks it might work again by bombing people. definitely, we are in a period of elections. they are just positioning themselves to either get elected or reelected. amy: what about the refugee crisis? >> they are paying the highest price.

i keep saying, shutdown our borders -- they keep saying, shutdown our borders. the attacks happened while the borders were closed and even before the agreements. amy: explain the agreement. the rightyou make -- to move freely throughout europe. we had that before the agreements. so why use refugees as a scapegoat? on top of that, and will take it as an insult but the french president or minister, refugees don't want to come to france. they keep saying, we don't want to come to your country, we just want to go to the u.k. or germany. and even if france would receive like 10,000 refugees, the lowest number throughout europe, they keep using them as scapegoats to justify these measures. amy: when talking about refugees being denied entrance into the u.s., you can go back to world war ii and a gallup poll was done in 1939 asking americans of

10,000 jewish refugee children for the time of the nazis, should be allowed into the united states and 60% of americans said no. then there was the missouri, the ship called voyage of the dammed that took 900 german jews as they were fleeing the nazis. cuba said it could not come in and the u.s. said they cannot come in. hundreds of the people on his ship were returned to germany and killed. can you talk about this experience of jews and how you relate to it as a muslim? >> as a muslim, i would like to make the connection with a similar story of jewish refugees looking for a place to go throughout europe and they were denied access all over europe and they kept going from one country to another. but let's remember that during world war ii, france was collaborating with the nazis. wasoring jews while france

shipping them to nazi germany to be exterminated. a muslim person refuse to give up on his own citizen, king mohammed the fit of morocco. unfortunate, we keep forgetting history. what is happening right now with syrian refugees and even iraq refugees happen to jews not long ago. sameep repeating the because nobody teaches history to our children. amy: yasser louati, spokesperson for the collective against islamophobia in france. since november13 attacks, killed 130 people in paris, french authorities have carried out more than 2200 raids under the state of emergency which they can raid anyone without judicial oversight, hundreds have been question and a number jailed. others are under house arrest. three mosques have been shut down. the vast majority of those targeted in the raids have been muslim. that doesn't for our show. -- that does it for our show.

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